A photo posted by Rolling Stone (@rollingstone) on 2016-05-15 23:06:26

Chicago’s #ChanceTheRapper released 2016’s richest hip-hop album last week. Though Kanye said ‘The Life of Pablo’ was a gospel album, ‘Coloring Book’ delivers on that promise in much more than fits and spurts. Gospel choirs are the backbone of the LP, rocketing heavenward in the background the same way soul samples did on Kanye records, James Brown breaks did on Public Enemy records or disco interpolations did in the Sugar Hill catalog. Reaching back to the very beginning of black music in America, Chance recontextualizes one of the most enduring African-American art forms for 2016’s most urgent one. Click through the link in our bio to read our first impression of MC’s thrilling new mixtape. Photograph by Erika Goldring